Did you know Neural is taking the stage this fall? Together with an amazing line-up of experts, we will explore the future of AI during TNW Conference 2021. Artificial intelligence is far too often a solution looking for a problem. So it's refreshing when someone manages to find the perfect way to apply a simple AI trick to a huge problem plaguing humanity. And that's exactly what serial creator Nick Bild's done (again) with his novel AI-powered stop-motion animation system. Simply put, the big problem with creating stop-motion animation is that it takes forever.

I'm in the middle of a snow-blighted wasteland, and everything is white. It would be hard to tell day from night if not for the fact that night is much colder. My only source of heat is some threadbare clothing recently issued to me. I'm exhausted and starving, but carrying precious little food. My school is not all that far off, but the last time I tried to take shelter there, a mob of criminals tried to kill me. There is a world of safer, warmer places I could go, but I am on foot in this blizzard, and I don't think I would survive the walk.

Julian Green was explaining the big problem with meetings when our meeting started to glitch. A sentence came out as hiccups. Then he sputtered, froze, and ghosted. Green and I had been chatting on Headroom, a new video conferencing platform he and cofounder Andrew Rabinovich launched this fall. The glitch, they assured me, was not caused by their software, but by Green's Wi-Fi connection.

Jill Watson, a bot, was used as a teaching assistant at Georgia Tech, and students never realised she's not human Automating rule-based and routine tasks like grading of tests and assignments can help reduce tedium for teachers We still need human teachers to mentor students, to promote high thinking and to provide the human touch Jill Watson, a bot, was used as a teaching assistant at Georgia Tech, and students never realised she's not human In January this year, Jill Watson joined the Georgia Institute of Technology US as a teaching assistant (TA) to help MSc (computer science) students with their design projects. Her job was to reply to their (thousands of) questions. She was prompt, responded quickly to questions over email, and posted regularly on online fora. She had an easy manner -- often responding with a brief "yep" or welcoming suggestions with a "we'd love to". The students described her as sharp, impersonal and prompt to respond.

In the next couple years, it's is coming to the fore.